The classification (Sev-1, Sev-2, ...) that drives response time, channel, escalation, and comms cadence for an incident.
Incident severity is a tiered classification (typically Sev-1 through Sev-4) that determines who gets paged, how fast they have to acknowledge, what comms cadence the responder runs, and what escalation path applies if the incident is not contained. A clear severity matrix, written down before incidents happen, removes the freeze-frame moment where the on-call wonders 'is this a Sev-1 or a Sev-2.'
The wrong severity has compounding cost: too low and the response is undersized, too high and senior responders burn out on routine work. A documented matrix with response time, channel, escalation tier, comms cadence, and exit criteria turns the call into a checklist instead of a judgment.
See the part of the platform that handles incident severity in production.